The final stretch leading to the finish platform was a loop.
The stands surrounded it, and the spotlights chased Imperial Scale's silhouette, yet they could only sweep away the shadows behind her. She was so fast it seemed even light could not catch up.
Vroom, roar!
As she entered the bend, the engine's roar intertwined with the sound of braking.
The tire smoke she kicked up washed against the walls like waves.
She hit the gas again and swung the tail out of the corner.
When Imperial Scale entered the turn, she was in the middle lane. Throughout the entire corner and the exit, she remained in the middle lane. Her whole body seemed to be firmly locked within the racing line drawn on the track, without deviating even a fraction.
"Unbelievable. What kind of terrifying vehicle control is that?"
Amateurs watched the spectacle. Experts saw the technique.
To ordinary spectators, Derek Su's drifting performance simply looked cool and pleasing to the eye. It was nothing like the other competitors' drifts, where they swung wildly from side to side as if they could barely keep control.
But to a competitor at Leon Li's level, what he saw was Derek Su's monstrous racing control, his mastery of the track, and the kind of track experience that could only be forged through countless repetitions. And precisely because he could see all that, he was even more shaken.
"Swain Li, your skills are better than mine." He looked at the bowl-cut guy beside him. "Can you do that?"
His gaze landed on Swain Li's face, only to see Swain Li's eyes wide open and his face pale.
Clearly, he had also been badly shocked by Derek Su's maneuver just now.
"W-what did you just say?!" Swain Li snapped back to himself.
"I said, that maneuver Derek Su just pulled, drifting right along the racing line. Can you do it?"
"Are you kidding me?" Swain Li looked at Leon Li, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Man, I'm a normal person, not a monster. Don't compare me to a monster!"
The two of them were not speaking quietly.
Chloe Qin, who was not far away, heard them too. She rolled her eyes in disdain.
Derek Su's driving skills were indeed impressive. That line-hugging drift just now had startled even her.
But now that she had Derek Su's technique AI Core assisting her, she could pull off a maneuver like that too.
Probably...
In any case, it was still the same as before.
Now that she had fused with Derek Su's technique AI core, she was invincible.
The corner of Chloe Qin's mouth curled up. She folded her arms, completely lost in her own world.
...
The finish line.
For Imperial Scale's current speed, the five-hundred-meter loop was over in the blink of an eye.
Derek Su pulled the handbrake, drifted sideways, and Imperial Scale came to a steady stop on the finish platform.
With troublesome opponents like DL-02 and Richard Cheng out of the picture, the championship for this race was basically secured.
That was what Derek Su had originally thought. But when he walked down from the finish platform with Imperial Scale and looked at the Path of Glory stretching all the way to the platform, an inexplicable unease rose in his heart. What kind of Mecha Girl's special skill was this outrageous? It had actually covered the entire track.
And had he seen this Mecha Girl before?
Derek Su carefully recalled the races he had participated in over the past half year.
He realized that he really had never seen a Mecha Girl with such an outrageous special skill.
Who exactly was she? If she was really that strong, why had he had no impression of her at all when the race started?!
"Imperial Scale, you know more about Mecha Girls. Do you know any model with a special skill that can cover the entire track?"
Faced with Derek Su's question, Imperial Scale frowned and thought for a while, but in the end, she still shook her head.
"There are too many models." Her tone carried a bit of helplessness and confusion. "And the special skills of many top-tier Mecha Girls are very mysterious."
Derek Su scratched his head.
If even Imperial Scale did not know, then he, a "poor student," understood even less.
In that case, he might as well wait at the finish line. The other party would have to reach the finish line eventually. When that happened, he would naturally find out who it was.
Time passed, second by second.
The Mermaid Bay Advanced Race competitors arrived at the finish line one after another. The fast ones were half an hour behind Derek Su, while the slower ones were more than an hour behind.
Even Richard Cheng had arrived at the finish line. He had been brought over by one of the race organizer's support Mecha Girls.
After arriving, he casually found a place to sit. He looked around for a long time, seemingly searching for DL-02, but in the end, he found nothing. He sat alone in the shadows, dejected and miserable.
Derek Su felt it was better not to tell Richard Cheng where DL-02 had gone.
If Richard Cheng found out that DL-02 would rather go to the Recycling Yard than become his Mecha Girl...
That guy would definitely break down.
...
It was nearly nine in the morning, and the sun had fully risen.
After the sixty-ninth competitor drove his Mecha Girl onto the finish platform, the organizers still showed no intention of announcing the results.
Some competitors had already grown impatient from waiting, so one of them took the initiative to approach Kool Kenny and ask what was going on.
Derek Su and Imperial Scale also pricked up their ears to listen.
"Host, what's going on? I counted. All sixty-nine competitors are here. It's almost nine in the morning, so why are we still standing here in the cold wind?" That competitor probably had not done well, so he was in a bad mood, and naturally his tone was not pleasant. He frowned and questioned him. "Hurry up and announce the rankings already. I need to take my Mecha Girl back to rest!"
Kool Kenny did not get angry. Instead, he gave a standard customer-service smile.
"Please don't worry. The organizers contacted me earlier. There is still a seventieth competitor today. She arrived rather late, but she did participate in the race. So before she reaches the finish line, the final results cannot be decided."
When the competitor heard that, he rolled his eyes and said speechlessly, "What kind of result can someone who was that late possibly get?
"If she's that careless about the race, her result is definitely dead last.
"I really don't know what the organizers of the Mermaid Bay Advanced Race are doing..."
He grumbled as he returned to his Mecha Girl.
Of course he was unhappy, but he could only endure it.
He had already made up his mind. When the final competitor arrived, he was definitely going to go over and mock her a little.
Morning, 9:17 a.m.
A sharp engine roar suddenly rang out from the racetrack that had been silent all this time.
After being stimulated by Derek Su and Imperial Scale's superb cornering technique earlier, the spectators had not fallen asleep this time. The competitors exchanged looks as they listened to the engine, and then waves of exclamations rose from the distant stands.
Kool Kenny immediately switched the screen to the loop leading to the finish line.
Derek Su and Imperial Scale stared at the screen, their pupils shrinking.
They saw a Mecha Girl like a phantom racing along the Path of Glory.
Her body was almost transparent, trailing ribbon-like light around her, as if she had merged into the Path of Glory itself.
When she turned, there was no sharp screech of tires rubbing against the ground.
There was also no tire smoke from rubber burning under high heat.
Aside from the sharp engine note, everything was strangely calm.
Derek Su realized that he had indeed seen this Mecha Girl before.
She was Eternity, and her pilot was the ace of Glory Peak Club, Lucy Luo.
She was a strange person.
She was strange, and her Mecha Girl was strange too.
And now, the special skill Eternity-01 was displaying was even stranger.
Under everyone's gaze, Eternity-01 crossed the finish line and raced all the way to the finish platform.
Buzz!
A radiant golden gate unfolded in front of the finish platform.
Eternity-01's body slid sideways out of the radiant gate.
She gradually returned from a transparent state to a dazzling white solid form.
There were no flashy tricks, or perhaps she simply had no need for them.
She just stopped quietly on the finish platform.
...
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